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#1
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Bangkok No Fun any more
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/03/0...kokletter.html A long wooden table obstructs the entrance to Silom Soi 2, a narrow pedestrian alley lined with gay bars a few blocks from Bangkok's once-infamous red light district, Patpong. I'm going to D.J. Station, a local club where gays and straights alike gyrate to earsplitting rhythms on the cramped dance floor. Four burly men in jeans and T-shirts slouching at one end of the table point to a prominent sign written in Thai and ungrammatical English. No one under 20 can enter the soi (street) and everyone must present valid ID, which for non-Thais constitutes an original passport (no photocopies) or a driver's license. Obviously over 20, I'm excluded from the ID formalities. "Have fun Auntie," one of the bouncers mutters in Thai as he waves me through the barricade, probably not realizing I understand him. A politer version of the ID checking process is repeated outside D.J.'s, where once again I'm whisked through. However, my 20-year-old Thai-English companion's valid British driver's license receives lengthy scrutiny before he is allowed inside. Increasingly, going out on the town in Bangkok has become more of a hassle than checking in for an international flight. At least after clearing airport security and passport control, passengers can look forward to a smooth trip. But once inside the dwindling number of international-standard Bangkok night spots, patrons still face a potentially bumpy ride. In early 2001 the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra began a "social order" campaign to clean up the country's risqué image and also to halt the supposed moral decay of its youth. (Mr. Thaksin dissolved Parliament on Feb. 24 and is acting as caretaker prime minister until new elections on April 2.) The two local English-language publications - The Nation and The Bangkok Post - periodically posit that the crackdown was inspired by unnamed prominent politicians who couldn't control their own pampered offspring. Long-ignored 1981 legislation outlining entertainment licensing categories was resuscitated, and contrary to the normally laissez-faire Thai attitude toward lawfulness, the regulations began to be enforced. To change Bangkok's decades-old reputation as a 24-hour party center, in 2002 the Thaksin government created three "entertainment zones" in which drinking and dancing were allowed until 2 a.m. (According to one club owner, four years later nobody knows the precise boundaries because the zoning law was never made official.) Outside these zones, dancing was illegal and closing times were 1 a.m. Of the trio of late-night zones, only Patpong would be familiar to visitors. Significantly cleaned up over the last five years, the strip is naughty only in so far as sanitized parodies of sex shows and hordes of stall vendors selling overpriced tourist schlock could be considered salacious. Apart from the long-running bar Tapas (Silom Soi 4) and D.J. Station, nothing in the Patpong area qualifies as a trendy dance club. The second zone is Royal City Avenue, known as R.C.A., a strip of youth-oriented venues in central Bangkok catering primarily to Thais. Recently clubs like the huge concrete Astra have started to attract a crowd of expatriates in their 20's by importing hip D.J.'s (Amnesia Ibiza, Goldie and others). Even so, one night at the 15-year-old Zouk bar in Singapore provides more real action and excitement than you'd find in an entire week on R.C.A. The third zone, Ratchadapisek, is a four-lane suburban road popular with Thai businessmen seeking the kind of entertainment available at lavish multistoried massage parlors with names like Love Boat and Colonze. At first, club owners and customers didn't take the new laws seriously. After all, this was Bangkok, where the police hung out drinking with foreigners until dawn and a few hundred surreptitious baht resolved most official problems. Besides, why would authorities undermine the urbane club scene developing in the Sukhumvit area? That scene was catalyzed by the 1999 opening of Q Bar, a "New York-style" lounge on Soi 11, followed by the raucous Ministry of Sound (Soi 12), the ultrachic Bed Supperclub (Soi 11) and the luxuriant Mystique (Soi 31). Elsewhere, new hotel bars like 87 (at the Conrad), Tantra (Pan Pacific) and Met Bar (Metropolitan) offered additional cosmopolitan choices. But nothing deflates a thriving club scene like repeated unheralded visits by a local constabulary intent on upholding "social order." And that is exactly what has been happening over the last four years. Sometimes the raiding police are accompanied by local TV crews. Exits are barred, music grinds to sudden silence, lights flash on. Confused and scared patrons who a moment before were partying down are suddenly confronted by brown-uniformed police officers who demand to see their ID's, frisk them or occasionally force them to urinate in a cup to test for drug use. The raids often last far beyond the 1 or 2 a.m. closing hours. They have rarely netted any violators. But these attempts to regulate Thai teenagers' behavior have severely limited the nocturnal activities of over-20 clubbers and have of course been devastating for the clubs they frequent. Ministry of Sound, Tantra and Mystique have closed, and 87 is dead. Only Q Bar and Bed Supperclub remain active, and David Jacobson, co-owner of Q Bar, says that they survive partly because no new international investors will risk coming onto such an unpredictable club scene to provide competition. "Bangkok is a dead town," he said. "It was one of the most fun places in Asia." In March Q Bar is opening a branch in Singapore where it can stay open 24/7, though closing hour will be 4 a.m. Even Kurt Wachtveitl, general manager of the Oriental Hotel for 38 years, weighed in on local night life in a Jan. 13 interview in The Bangkok Post: "Wealthy people like to spend their money on things they enjoy, and they spend a lot of money. But they don't want to go to bed early! If Bangkok continues to be the kind of city that begins to look sleepy after midnight, it will be wasting all its advantages to the upscale foreign visitors. They'll go to Beijing, Shanghai and now Singapore." Far from cleaning up the city's image, the social order campaign has spawned a sordid - and unregulated - after-hours scene that unfolds on steamy sidewalks and dark alleys behind second-story black-curtained windows. "You can't suppress people," David Jacobson said. "They want to have a good time. It's human nature." An hour at smoky and cacophonic D.J. Station satisfies my dancing urges. Not ready to call it a night, however, I decamp to Rain Tree Pub & Restauant, a tiny bar near Victory Monument where Thai folksingers croon 1970's melodies known as "songs for life." I adore these rapidly vanishing examples of traditional Thai life and am having a fabulous time. Nonetheless, promptly at 1 a.m. the lights come on, the band packs up, and I'm out on the streets of Bangkok, all dressed up with no place to go. |
#2
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Bangkok No Fun any more
These are security formalities. Now is different from the past. It is
troublesome and it has become a hassle problem. "none" wrote in message oups.com... http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/03/0...kokletter.html A long wooden table obstructs the entrance to Silom Soi 2, a narrow pedestrian alley lined with gay bars a few blocks from Bangkok's once-infamous red light district, Patpong. I'm going to D.J. Station, a local club where gays and straights alike gyrate to earsplitting rhythms on the cramped dance floor. Four burly men in jeans and T-shirts slouching at one end of the table point to a prominent sign written in Thai and ungrammatical English. No one under 20 can enter the soi (street) and everyone must present valid ID, which for non-Thais constitutes an original passport (no photocopies) or a driver's license. Obviously over 20, I'm excluded from the ID formalities. "Have fun Auntie," one of the bouncers mutters in Thai as he waves me through the barricade, probably not realizing I understand him. A politer version of the ID checking process is repeated outside D.J.'s, where once again I'm whisked through. However, my 20-year-old Thai-English companion's valid British driver's license receives lengthy scrutiny before he is allowed inside. Increasingly, going out on the town in Bangkok has become more of a hassle than checking in for an international flight. At least after clearing airport security and passport control, passengers can look forward to a smooth trip. But once inside the dwindling number of international-standard Bangkok night spots, patrons still face a potentially bumpy ride. In early 2001 the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra began a "social order" campaign to clean up the country's risqué image and also to halt the supposed moral decay of its youth. (Mr. Thaksin dissolved Parliament on Feb. 24 and is acting as caretaker prime minister until new elections on April 2.) The two local English-language publications - The Nation and The Bangkok Post - periodically posit that the crackdown was inspired by unnamed prominent politicians who couldn't control their own pampered offspring. Long-ignored 1981 legislation outlining entertainment licensing categories was resuscitated, and contrary to the normally laissez-faire Thai attitude toward lawfulness, the regulations began to be enforced. To change Bangkok's decades-old reputation as a 24-hour party center, in 2002 the Thaksin government created three "entertainment zones" in which drinking and dancing were allowed until 2 a.m. (According to one club owner, four years later nobody knows the precise boundaries because the zoning law was never made official.) Outside these zones, dancing was illegal and closing times were 1 a.m. Of the trio of late-night zones, only Patpong would be familiar to visitors. Significantly cleaned up over the last five years, the strip is naughty only in so far as sanitized parodies of sex shows and hordes of stall vendors selling overpriced tourist schlock could be considered salacious. Apart from the long-running bar Tapas (Silom Soi 4) and D.J. Station, nothing in the Patpong area qualifies as a trendy dance club. The second zone is Royal City Avenue, known as R.C.A., a strip of youth-oriented venues in central Bangkok catering primarily to Thais. Recently clubs like the huge concrete Astra have started to attract a crowd of expatriates in their 20's by importing hip D.J.'s (Amnesia Ibiza, Goldie and others). Even so, one night at the 15-year-old Zouk bar in Singapore provides more real action and excitement than you'd find in an entire week on R.C.A. The third zone, Ratchadapisek, is a four-lane suburban road popular with Thai businessmen seeking the kind of entertainment available at lavish multistoried massage parlors with names like Love Boat and Colonze. At first, club owners and customers didn't take the new laws seriously. After all, this was Bangkok, where the police hung out drinking with foreigners until dawn and a few hundred surreptitious baht resolved most official problems. Besides, why would authorities undermine the urbane club scene developing in the Sukhumvit area? That scene was catalyzed by the 1999 opening of Q Bar, a "New York-style" lounge on Soi 11, followed by the raucous Ministry of Sound (Soi 12), the ultrachic Bed Supperclub (Soi 11) and the luxuriant Mystique (Soi 31). Elsewhere, new hotel bars like 87 (at the Conrad), Tantra (Pan Pacific) and Met Bar (Metropolitan) offered additional cosmopolitan choices. But nothing deflates a thriving club scene like repeated unheralded visits by a local constabulary intent on upholding "social order." And that is exactly what has been happening over the last four years. Sometimes the raiding police are accompanied by local TV crews. Exits are barred, music grinds to sudden silence, lights flash on. Confused and scared patrons who a moment before were partying down are suddenly confronted by brown-uniformed police officers who demand to see their ID's, frisk them or occasionally force them to urinate in a cup to test for drug use. The raids often last far beyond the 1 or 2 a.m. closing hours. They have rarely netted any violators. But these attempts to regulate Thai teenagers' behavior have severely limited the nocturnal activities of over-20 clubbers and have of course been devastating for the clubs they frequent. Ministry of Sound, Tantra and Mystique have closed, and 87 is dead. Only Q Bar and Bed Supperclub remain active, and David Jacobson, co-owner of Q Bar, says that they survive partly because no new international investors will risk coming onto such an unpredictable club scene to provide competition. "Bangkok is a dead town," he said. "It was one of the most fun places in Asia." In March Q Bar is opening a branch in Singapore where it can stay open 24/7, though closing hour will be 4 a.m. Even Kurt Wachtveitl, general manager of the Oriental Hotel for 38 years, weighed in on local night life in a Jan. 13 interview in The Bangkok Post: "Wealthy people like to spend their money on things they enjoy, and they spend a lot of money. But they don't want to go to bed early! If Bangkok continues to be the kind of city that begins to look sleepy after midnight, it will be wasting all its advantages to the upscale foreign visitors. They'll go to Beijing, Shanghai and now Singapore." Far from cleaning up the city's image, the social order campaign has spawned a sordid - and unregulated - after-hours scene that unfolds on steamy sidewalks and dark alleys behind second-story black-curtained windows. "You can't suppress people," David Jacobson said. "They want to have a good time. It's human nature." An hour at smoky and cacophonic D.J. Station satisfies my dancing urges. Not ready to call it a night, however, I decamp to Rain Tree Pub & Restauant, a tiny bar near Victory Monument where Thai folksingers croon 1970's melodies known as "songs for life." I adore these rapidly vanishing examples of traditional Thai life and am having a fabulous time. Nonetheless, promptly at 1 a.m. the lights come on, the band packs up, and I'm out on the streets of Bangkok, all dressed up with no place to go. |
#3
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Bangkok No Fun any more
Refer to:
http://www.SnapTheRoom.com/ Mr. Free Notes "none" wrote in message oups.com... http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/03/0...kokletter.html A long wooden table obstructs the entrance to Silom Soi 2, a narrow pedestrian alley lined with gay bars a few blocks from Bangkok's once-infamous red light district, Patpong. I'm going to D.J. Station, a local club where gays and straights alike gyrate to earsplitting rhythms on the cramped dance floor. Four burly men in jeans and T-shirts slouching at one end of the table point to a prominent sign written in Thai and ungrammatical English. No one under 20 can enter the soi (street) and everyone must present valid ID, which for non-Thais constitutes an original passport (no photocopies) or a driver's license. Obviously over 20, I'm excluded from the ID formalities. "Have fun Auntie," one of the bouncers mutters in Thai as he waves me through the barricade, probably not realizing I understand him. A politer version of the ID checking process is repeated outside D.J.'s, where once again I'm whisked through. However, my 20-year-old Thai-English companion's valid British driver's license receives lengthy scrutiny before he is allowed inside. Increasingly, going out on the town in Bangkok has become more of a hassle than checking in for an international flight. At least after clearing airport security and passport control, passengers can look forward to a smooth trip. But once inside the dwindling number of international-standard Bangkok night spots, patrons still face a potentially bumpy ride. In early 2001 the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra began a "social order" campaign to clean up the country's risqué image and also to halt the supposed moral decay of its youth. (Mr. Thaksin dissolved Parliament on Feb. 24 and is acting as caretaker prime minister until new elections on April 2.) The two local English-language publications - The Nation and The Bangkok Post - periodically posit that the crackdown was inspired by unnamed prominent politicians who couldn't control their own pampered offspring. Long-ignored 1981 legislation outlining entertainment licensing categories was resuscitated, and contrary to the normally laissez-faire Thai attitude toward lawfulness, the regulations began to be enforced. To change Bangkok's decades-old reputation as a 24-hour party center, in 2002 the Thaksin government created three "entertainment zones" in which drinking and dancing were allowed until 2 a.m. (According to one club owner, four years later nobody knows the precise boundaries because the zoning law was never made official.) Outside these zones, dancing was illegal and closing times were 1 a.m. Of the trio of late-night zones, only Patpong would be familiar to visitors. Significantly cleaned up over the last five years, the strip is naughty only in so far as sanitized parodies of sex shows and hordes of stall vendors selling overpriced tourist schlock could be considered salacious. Apart from the long-running bar Tapas (Silom Soi 4) and D.J. Station, nothing in the Patpong area qualifies as a trendy dance club. The second zone is Royal City Avenue, known as R.C.A., a strip of youth-oriented venues in central Bangkok catering primarily to Thais. Recently clubs like the huge concrete Astra have started to attract a crowd of expatriates in their 20's by importing hip D.J.'s (Amnesia Ibiza, Goldie and others). Even so, one night at the 15-year-old Zouk bar in Singapore provides more real action and excitement than you'd find in an entire week on R.C.A. The third zone, Ratchadapisek, is a four-lane suburban road popular with Thai businessmen seeking the kind of entertainment available at lavish multistoried massage parlors with names like Love Boat and Colonze. At first, club owners and customers didn't take the new laws seriously. After all, this was Bangkok, where the police hung out drinking with foreigners until dawn and a few hundred surreptitious baht resolved most official problems. Besides, why would authorities undermine the urbane club scene developing in the Sukhumvit area? That scene was catalyzed by the 1999 opening of Q Bar, a "New York-style" lounge on Soi 11, followed by the raucous Ministry of Sound (Soi 12), the ultrachic Bed Supperclub (Soi 11) and the luxuriant Mystique (Soi 31). Elsewhere, new hotel bars like 87 (at the Conrad), Tantra (Pan Pacific) and Met Bar (Metropolitan) offered additional cosmopolitan choices. But nothing deflates a thriving club scene like repeated unheralded visits by a local constabulary intent on upholding "social order." And that is exactly what has been happening over the last four years. Sometimes the raiding police are accompanied by local TV crews. Exits are barred, music grinds to sudden silence, lights flash on. Confused and scared patrons who a moment before were partying down are suddenly confronted by brown-uniformed police officers who demand to see their ID's, frisk them or occasionally force them to urinate in a cup to test for drug use. The raids often last far beyond the 1 or 2 a.m. closing hours. They have rarely netted any violators. But these attempts to regulate Thai teenagers' behavior have severely limited the nocturnal activities of over-20 clubbers and have of course been devastating for the clubs they frequent. Ministry of Sound, Tantra and Mystique have closed, and 87 is dead. Only Q Bar and Bed Supperclub remain active, and David Jacobson, co-owner of Q Bar, says that they survive partly because no new international investors will risk coming onto such an unpredictable club scene to provide competition. "Bangkok is a dead town," he said. "It was one of the most fun places in Asia." In March Q Bar is opening a branch in Singapore where it can stay open 24/7, though closing hour will be 4 a.m. Even Kurt Wachtveitl, general manager of the Oriental Hotel for 38 years, weighed in on local night life in a Jan. 13 interview in The Bangkok Post: "Wealthy people like to spend their money on things they enjoy, and they spend a lot of money. But they don't want to go to bed early! If Bangkok continues to be the kind of city that begins to look sleepy after midnight, it will be wasting all its advantages to the upscale foreign visitors. They'll go to Beijing, Shanghai and now Singapore." Far from cleaning up the city's image, the social order campaign has spawned a sordid - and unregulated - after-hours scene that unfolds on steamy sidewalks and dark alleys behind second-story black-curtained windows. "You can't suppress people," David Jacobson said. "They want to have a good time. It's human nature." An hour at smoky and cacophonic D.J. Station satisfies my dancing urges. Not ready to call it a night, however, I decamp to Rain Tree Pub & Restauant, a tiny bar near Victory Monument where Thai folksingers croon 1970's melodies known as "songs for life." I adore these rapidly vanishing examples of traditional Thai life and am having a fabulous time. Nonetheless, promptly at 1 a.m. the lights come on, the band packs up, and I'm out on the streets of Bangkok, all dressed up with no place to go. |
#4
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Bangkok No Fun any more
I wonder if Prime Minister Thaksin's recent unpopularity
in Bangkok has something to do with his government's devastation of the entertainment industry there. A lot of Thais were making a living out of it. And I can imagine that many of them are not happy about loosing their incomes as a result of his government's actions. |
#5
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Bangkok No Fun any more
On 7 Mar 2006 10:56:42 -0800, "Dan" wrote:
I wonder if Prime Minister Thaksin's recent unpopularity in Bangkok has something to do with his government's devastation of the entertainment industry there. A lot of Thais were making a living out of it. And I can imagine that many of them are not happy about loosing their incomes as a result of his government's actions. What devastation? Where are your references?? Moving closing hours to midnight(ish) from the previous Two(ish) which was a change from the previous to THAT Four(ish) has had little effect so far as far as anyone can tell; other than the johns are getting drunk a bit earlier than before. The prostitutes are probably making about the same money and the rest of your tourist industry has likely seen no change at all. The johns still have to eat, have to travel, and have to have some place to stay. If Shinwatra could eliminate the prostitution industry totally he would have to be considered a saint; but as it is, they, in all likelyhood, have too much power for to be eliminated. But one can hope. |
#6
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Bangkok No Fun any more
Slim wrote: On 7 Mar 2006 10:56:42 -0800, "Dan" wrote: I wonder if Prime Minister Thaksin's recent unpopularity in Bangkok has something to do with his government's devastation of the entertainment industry there. A lot of Thais were making a living out of it. And I can imagine that many of them are not happy about loosing their incomes as a result of his government's actions. What devastation? Where are your references?? Moving closing hours to midnight(ish) from the previous Two(ish) which was a change from the previous to THAT Four(ish) has had little effect so far as far as anyone can tell; other than the johns are getting drunk a bit earlier than before. The prostitutes are probably making about the same money and the rest of your tourist industry has likely seen no change at all. The johns still have to eat, have to travel, and have to have some place to stay. If Shinwatra could eliminate the prostitution industry totally he would have to be considered a saint; but as it is, they, in all likelyhood, have too much power for to be eliminated. But one can hope. While I have a big problem with the noise the out doors and some in doors bars make, I have no problem with the prostitution. There needs to be some place on earth where people can go and have sex all they want. Thailand was built on the backs of their woman, now they want to shun them. And those like you who come to Thailand the first thing you want to do is turn it into the place you came from. If you don't like Thailand as it is, you can move. I would love to see regulation on the noise, that all go go bars must be in doors and cannot be heard out side, or that out side bars must keep the sound level down to community standards. As if they get three calls on noise in one month they can be closed down for a week, first offense, to permanent closure after. Except for the prostitutes on the streets yelling "heyo way you go" and yelling to customers, no one would even know of their existance. Putting all this indoors would acheive the goals without changing the character of Thailand. If Thaksin actually gave a crap about the kids then he would do something about the noise, not the prostitutes. Thais would quickly put walls and sound insulation around their out doors go go bars if they could be closed for too much noise. |
#7
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Bangkok No Fun any more
He's trying to make clean new image of Thailand and it's unfortunate that
the people do not realise it. As a biz man he is trying to change the facade of his country into an economic power in SEA region. Selling Shin Corp is nothing more than good biz sense and it's a pity that the people do not realise the true implications. OK, maybe he makes a good chunk of money out of it, but so what? Is Thailand going to depend on the sex trade and the drugs trade forever.? Thanksin is trying to change this and get the people to rely on the manufacturing and IT sector but the people are not ready. That's the problem. The people are just not ready. They don't have the thinking power that he has and the vision that he has. Yes, his vision differs much from that of the neighbours down south. There is no protectionism. All is based on performance and self-reliance and this is where a strong nation stands on its own two feet. No fear of outside playmakers the like of Soros. Let Soros come, he says, and I'll wipe him out. The Thai people just do not realise how much he has done for Thailand's economic future and a place in the sun, standing with honour. So, Thai people, cease your protests for you do not know what you are doing!!! Appreciate Thanksin(intended). "Dan" wrote in message oups.com... I wonder if Prime Minister Thaksin's recent unpopularity in Bangkok has something to do with his government's devastation of the entertainment industry there. A lot of Thais were making a living out of it. And I can imagine that many of them are not happy about loosing their incomes as a result of his government's actions. |
#8
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Bangkok No Fun any more
Komin wrote: Bangkok is a very boring place, Thailand is good for sea side tourist , and good for your fukkings, all Bangkok is good for is the fukkings, if you don' t like to fukke , Bangkok is good for nothing , Bangkok is a very boring urine hole . That being said from the resident moron in SCT, SCM + SCS posting from Phnom Phen: 203.223.32.0 - 203.223.47.255 Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication Cambodia(MPTC) WAT PHNOM, corner of streets 102/13, Phnom Penh - CAMBODIA |
#9
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Bangkok No Fun any more
Touche' wrote: He's trying to make clean new image of Thailand and it's unfortunate that the people do not realise it. As a biz man he is trying to change the facade of his country into an economic power in SEA region. Selling Shin Corp is nothing more than good biz sense and it's a pity that the people do not realise the true implications. OK, maybe he makes a good chunk of money out of it, but so what? Is Thailand going to depend on the sex trade and the drugs trade forever.? No, but until it sakes off its third world ways, it is the best excuse for someone from the USA to spend some 20 to 30 hours on a plane, or someone from Europe to spend a little less time on a plane to come to a third world country. To come into Bangkok that is as smelly as London or LA, in smog. You can go to Puerto Rico if you want to see a beautiful country side and ocean views. Thailand until recently has had the reputation of party central. Of course when you come here (now) you find it is very unwise to smoke pot, and prostitution is on the books illegal. There is always the danger of a volunteer cop asking you if you want pot, or underage girls, if you bite you find yourself in a very bad jail situation. You now need to ask the girls if they are of legal age. In Hong Kong (unless thigs have changed) you can start a business in one day, you just go in get a license and you are in bussiness. Third world mentality countries as Thailand and India make it as hard as possible to start a business, especially for foreigners. Thanksin is trying to change this and get the people to rely on the manufacturing and IT sector but the people are not ready. Thailand is a monopoly driven hell hole for business. To start a business (unless you are from the USA) you have to have 7 thai owners along with you. Most get around this illegally by going to a lawyer, and having 7 of his buddies sign their shares over to you, but if you are found out, you are out of business. To get a phone, you have to first get a line, which may take 3 or more weeks, then you have to get a phone number. When I tried they kept saying bock full, bock full, in other words they had no lines because they were all taken in the box in my area. To get any drugs in Thailand you have to use the Siam brand because that is all there is, it is a total monopoly. The phone system is one monopoly, the the internet is a monopoly, and all just buy from that one. That's the problem. The people are just not ready. They don't have the thinking power that he has and the vision that he has. Yes, his vision differs much from that of the neighbours down south. There is no protectionism. All is based on performance and self-reliance and this is where a strong nation stands on its own two feet. No fear of outside playmakers the like of Soros. Let Soros come, he says, and I'll wipe him out. The Thai people just do not realise how much he has done for Thailand's economic future and a place in the sun, standing with honour. So, Thai people, cease your protests for you do not know what you are doing!!! Appreciate Thanksin(intended). Please, if you marry a thai your children are then foreigners. If you are not Thai you have to go out of the country every 2 to 3 months, or you cannot go out of the country without their permission. As a foreigner you never have a secure existance, no matter if you marry a thai have children, start a business and hire a 1000 thais. At the whim of the state you can be kicked out of Thailand and your visa denied. That is why Thailand will never be anything but a third world nation, unless it changes this. No one in their right mind is going to invenst in this type of situation. You cannot even own the land under your business. "Dan" wrote in message oups.com... I wonder if Prime Minister Thaksin's recent unpopularity in Bangkok has something to do with his government's devastation of the entertainment industry there. A lot of Thais were making a living out of it. And I can imagine that many of them are not happy about loosing their incomes as a result of his government's actions. |
#10
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Bangkok No Fun any more
This is very true.
And first off let me say it was a joy scrolling that long ass article 3 or 4 times. Snippy snippy please. Nevermind that the original poster is probably pasting an article copied from somewhere else. It lost its USENET post feel about 4 paragraphs in. Secondly, I don't have a clue what the original poster is talking about, there's dancing til 2am all over BKK, from way down past Ekemai to Siam plaza area, Sukhumvit of course, all over. Soi Nana, Soi Cowboy... the go go bars.. When Ministry of Sound closed its doors in 2003, my mates from the UK opened up a new UK style D&B / Trance / variety club right smack dab in the middle of RCA. They named it Kinetic BKK and it had 5 floors of entertainment and alcohol. Nobody bothered to tell these guys that only Thai music for Thai young people would fly on RCA and the club folded in under a year after tens of thousands of US dollars were pumped into it. Only the pervs (teleung!) go down to Patpong unless things have changed. Katoey Land. What was my point? Oh yeah.... the hype about Taksin "cleaning up Bangkok" is chang poop. Only thing that guy is interested in cleaning is Thai wallets of their hard earned Baht. (Hello Hatari) The sex trade in Bangkok has Taksin to thank for affordable mobile phone service, so the girls can call the guys and text message them "I come see you in room. I bring sister" . Sawadee khrap |
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